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The US Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, was an unlikely diplomat for the Trump administration latest proposal to end the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Driscoll's strong connection with JD Vance has placed a close associate of the Euroskeptic VP at the forefront of Donald Trump latest effort to conclude the war.

Prior to his recent trip to Kyiv, Driscoll was not known as a negotiator or statesman, and his initial attempts to promote the deal to European policymakers were described as turbulent.

Driscoll's strong ties with Vance, who he attended Yale and shares a close friendship, indicate the resurgence of the non-interventionist VP in talks to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Vance's Role in Peace Efforts

It was Vance who intervened during Ukraine's president's disastrous initial trip to the Trump White House in March and demanded he show Trump more courtesy. Currently, Ukraine is once again pushing back against pressure from the US to agree to a swift settlement that Ukrainian leaders have called a surrender.

Following a tumultuous first year in power, international decisions in the White House are said to be shaped by a small group of Trump's top advisers, including top aide Susie Wiles, conservative adviser Stephen Miller, envoy Steve Witkoff, State Department head Marco Rubio, and of course Vance.

Vance has been a outspoken supporter of the latest proposal, which was developed by Witkoff and Trump's relative Jared Kushner, together with the Russian diplomat Kirill Dmitriev.

“Every objection of the ceasefire plan the administration is developing either misinterprets the proposal or misstates some key reality on the ground,” Vance stated.

Initial Efforts and EU Reactions

Vance's initial attempts at hammering out a peace deal with Russia, while simultaneously seeking to renew ties with Moscow, were fruitless and left his team feeling disappointed with their Russian interlocutors. Leaders in Europe, in turn, were irritated by his initial speeches, in which he accused them of ignoring their constituents, who Vance said held anti-immigration and conservative views similar to those of Trump's own constituency.

But, the new ceasefire proposal mirrored his stances, and he has been one of the most assertive advocates for the deal in the government, even as the US has been criticized for accepting a peace framework that largely resembles Vladimir Putin's maximalist terms.

In posts this weekend, Vance argued that a peace deal would have to establish a ceasefire that respected Ukrainian independence, be acceptable to both sides, and stop the conflict from resuming.

“A ceasefire will not be made by failed negotiators or politicians living in a fantasy land,” he added. “It might be made by intelligent people living in the real world.”

It was Vance who continued on the introduction of the ceasefire proposal in a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump had mainly tasked his staff with securing a signature on the ceasefire accord before Thanksgiving this week in the United States.

The Secretary of State's Response and Private Concerns

Vance's stance was a notably more enthusiastic endorsement of the plan than that expressed by the top diplomat and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, a more conventional hardliner in the administration who has transitioned from a uncertain position inside the administration to more firm footing.

Rubio was part of a US team that went to Geneva this past weekend to meet with Ukrainian officials to help moderate the initial 28-point ceasefire proposal in order to make it more acceptable to leaders in Kyiv.

But, his initial reaction to the agreement was tepid:

“Stopping a complicated and deadly conflict such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic proposals,” Rubio wrote over the weekend. “Furthermore, securing a lasting peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary compromises. This is the reason we are and will continue to create a set of potential solutions for ending this war based on feedback from both sides of this conflict.”

In private, he was said to be much more doubtful of the plan. The Republican senator Mike Rounds stated last week at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia that Rubio had contacted lawmakers to clarify that the agreement was just a preliminary proposal from the Russians and not an plan pushed by the administration.

“The Secretary did make a call to us this afternoon and I think he emphasized to us that we are the recipients of a offer that was delivered to one of our representatives,” said Rounds. “The document is not our recommendation, it is not our peace plan.”

Rubio moved quickly to fall in line. “This ceasefire plan was authored by the US,” he later wrote. “It is offered as a strong structure for ongoing negotiations. The proposal is derived from input from the Russian side. But, it is additionally based on previous and current contributions from Ukraine.”